OMG British Engineering!

Just had a pair of Norton sliders for rebuild/inspection , First check with a DTI bore gauge ...I measure the un-worn upper bush area and where i Zero the gauge. Then slide in the gauge to show the variation where i expect wear. The "pair" i have one side 005 Five thou bigger than the other in the un-worn area. FIVE thou is miles out! No wonder people have problems with new stanchions and bush's . Is this the best of British :roll:

No we in what left of Britain's engineering industry can do much better and much worse to. We are still using machines that should have been scrapped years an even decades ago. We are still being told that there is no money in these harsh economic times to repair them properly let alone replace them. An they must in my case soldier on (in my works at least) 24 hours a day 7 days a week an only stop for Christmas just as they did 100 years or so ago.
In case you think i work for some little sweat shop its a large multi national American owned company rated in the top 50 worldwide. An next time you get on a plane, fill your bike up with fuel or watch F1 or other motor sports its all possible because of parts an special metal we make. So what hope did the poor works of the dying British bike industry have of good accurate machinery. If you have access to the appropriate machine tools try doing the job yourself an you may better understand the difficulties involved.

OMG ! i need glass's , my New Bore gauge measure's in 1/10's not thou' s so the sliders are only 1/2 thou different
So The best of Brit ain't that bad! after all. Sorry Old Blighty. But the slider in question is badly worn over 10 thou.

john robert bould said:

OMG ! i need glass's , my New Bore gauge measure's in 1/10's not thou' s so the sliders are only 1/2 thou different
So The best of Brit ain't that bad! after all. Sorry Old Blighty. But the slider in question is badly worn over 10 thou.

Click to expand...

Re;"OMG ! i need glass's , my New Bore gauge measure's in 1/10's not thou' s so the sliders are only 1/2 thou different "

Easy mistake to make, especially if you do not work in an engineering workshop all the time :!: :shock:

There was a story from the time Norton was moved from Birmingham to London that showed the state of things, even back then. Norton's older workers were given the chance to take early retirement rather than move house and many of them took up the offer.

After procuction was restarted at Plumstead, they had serious problems with the accuracy of the holes being drilled for the cylinder hold-down fasteners - about 50% of them were out of place by up to 1/8". In the end, they went to talk to the old guy who'd operated tha machine. He asked "Did you take my piece of wood?" They didn't know what he was talking about.

It turned out that the bearing for the main section of the machine that raised and lowered the drill heads was badly worn and he used a length of 2x4 lumber to lever the moving part to the same side of the wear pattern so the holes were drilled correctly. He'd been doing that for over 10 years!

Yes my limited time on the tools is showing up..only 50 years :roll: Diabetic disorder is taking its toll on the eyes.. and a hoist of other things..better think about retirement :?: One thing i have retained is my honesty ...should have not owned up to the extra Zero :?:

Bernhard said:

john robert bould said:

OMG ! i need glass's , my New Bore gauge measure's in 1/10's not thou' s so the sliders are only 1/2 thou different
So The best of Brit ain't that bad! after all. Sorry Old Blighty. But the slider in question is badly worn over 10 thou.

Click to expand...

Re;"OMG ! i need glass's , my New Bore gauge measure's in 1/10's not thou' s so the sliders are only 1/2 thou different "

Easy mistake to make, especially if you do not work in an engineering workshop all the time :!: :shock:

Click to expand...

So there you have it in a nutshell. British engineering judged on a company owned by Americans.....
I would advise moving to one of the many modern British companies that do invest in new machine tools and modern processes and methodologies whilst you have chance. Keep the flag flying....

Fast Fred ,
My lathe. a 50 year old Harrison L5 £500 will still turn spot on, The local firm as a Mori £175.000 and scraps my items , well let's get this correct..the operator scraps items :lol: But after giving him a dam good Bollocking he's finally got the message.

FastFred said:

So there you have it in a nutshell. British engineering judged on a company owned by Americans.....
I would advise moving to one of the many modern British companies that do invest in new machine tools and modern processes and methodologies whilst you have chance. Keep the flag flying....

Click to expand...

Exactly John. Knowing a machines capabilities is the key.

More like getting deep and meaningful with the operator :evil: .Phrase's like " You f****** wa**er ! " is better than a refresher course :lol:

FastFred said:

Exactly John. Knowing a machines capabilities is the key.

Click to expand...

There's a very good reason why most F1 teams are based in the UK and that's that when it comes to the precision engineering of that type we're the best there is.

The abject failure of British motorbikes built after WWII wasn't because the workforce was poor, it was because the greedy owners were taking every penny they could out of the businesses rather than reinvesting in new machinery and developing new products.

I still work in engineering in the UK but in a very specialised area where we don't actually make a product but we do make our own machinery whenever we need it.

Andy_B said:

There's a very good reason why most F1 teams are based in the UK and that's that when it comes to the precision engineering of that type we're the best there is.

Click to expand...

Ah, that's why those teams - at least the three or four teams who still can afford and pay decent work - are using the same suppliers all over Europe as we do. :mrgreen:


Tim

There is no genetic race nor political nationality involved in machine presision as boils down to who's got the baddest bansters behind them. Enjoy the one-up-manship manufacting tales here's. The way I was introduced to this was the American's send a needle to Japan then Japan sent it back drilled then Americans sent it again with Declaration of Indepence engraverd around it. http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp